Destry Allyn Spielberg’s Indie Feature Debut Suffers Financing Hurdles and Still Owes Vendors
variety.comGene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Independent filmmaking is no easy task — even if you’re Steven Spielberg’s daughter. Destry Allyn Spielberg is set to make her feature directorial debut with “Please Don’t Feed the Children,” a low-budget thriller, which was filmed last year in Santa Fe, N.M.
But the film has endured significant financing problems, shutting down just before production was to begin. Production later restarted and wrapped around Thanksgiving, but the project still owes numerous vendors about $200,000, according to emails and interviews. “All the vendors and crew did everything we could to make this film possible,” the film’s transportation coordinator, Mike Garcia, wrote in an email to Spielberg and the producers in January. “To not pay for their services in return is unacceptable.” Jason Dubin, the film’s lead producer, said in an interview on Wednesday that the production has recently obtained funding from a new investor in Seattle that will allow it to pay the vendors, perhaps as soon as the end of this week. “This is all on me,” he said.
Dubin has repeatedly assured vendors since December that they would be paid in full. In response to Garcia’s email in January, Dubin said the production was close to getting financing that would “get everyone paid within the next two weeks.” “As with many independent films, it has been a very challenging uphill battle financing this film from the start,” he wrote.
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